25
£5.625
Chinese in the near future, and that they will, therefore still be able to dispose of their properties at high prices. What, however, they fail to realise is that time is against them and that each month between now and October, large numbers of flats will be completed.
COST OF LAND.
It is difficult either to understand or to justify Government's land policy (or lack of it) during the last two years. On the one side we see other departments of Government doing everything in their power to reduce the cost of living, whilst the Public Works Department, the biggest land owners in the Colony, encouraged the inflation of land values. They did this in a manner similar to that employed by any great monopoly, i.e., reducing supplies in the face of increased demands.
Had the P.W.D. put up all available Crown land for sale, they would surely have prevented the continued rise in land values. Equally, had they taken a bold line in regard to renewal of leases which were falling due for renewal • Rehabilitation, on the Peak particularly, would have been
greatly accelerated and the pressure on the hotels reduced thereby, making available badly needed accommodation for those unable to raise sufficient capital to build for themselves.
It is not yet authoritatively known what the terms for the renewal of leases will be, but it is rumoured that Government is valuing Peak property at between 3. to $6 per sq. ft. on the basis of $6 per sq ft. the whole position becomes ludicrous, as the basic cost of, say, 15,000 sq.ft. of land on the Peak (a reasonable area on which to build an average sized bungalow) will be $90,000, a figure far outside the means of any but the "Taipans".
So little land has changed hands on the Peak, especially above Magazine Gap, that it is difficult to know how Government have arrived at their valuation, but what is certain is that if they fix the price too high, very few single dwellings will be built on the Peak and it will only be profitable to utilise Government land provided blocks of flats are built, thus reducing the proportionate cost of land per flat.
It can only be hoped that those who have rehabilitated since June 1946 and are therefore eventually bound to accept Government terms or lose their buildings, will not be too harshly treated, as they have undoubtedly performed a useful public function by going ahead with rehabilitation and making a small contribution to the overall accommodation shortage. Even at this stage generous terms by Government are justified provided the buyers build immediately. So far Government have contributed very little to the relief of the housing problem, other than constructing expensive flats for their own employees and surely it is not too much to expect them to mitigate their "money grabbing" policy.
Comparatively few land sales have taken place of late. There are still a number of buyers but at prices well below sellers' ideas. Loreover, most buyers require financial assis- tance and Banks are today unwilling lenders against land. In fact there are only one or two Chinese Banks and a small
number